A Food Blog in a Saturated Market

I have tried in the past to write a food blog and have found that I have become frustrated with what "is and isn't" supposed to show up on a "Foodie Blog".  What should a Toronto food blogger write about in a world that is populated with so many food bloggers?  Can the environment sustain another person writing about how wonderful the produce is at the Brickworks? or how good the smoked meat is at Caplansky's?  We all know that, don't we?  Every Torontonian who picks up a paper, reads one food blog or has one "foodie" friend can recite those simple yet fabulously true facts.  So why write about any food experiences in Toronto if they are just going to be the same as everyone else's??

Because I grew up in a family that surrounded itself with food.  Every happy celebration, event, social gathering, time together, that I remember involved us eating or feeding family and friends.  Food was and is the glue that kept us together.  It made us a close knit family, that enjoys spoiling people with large meals, full stomachs and good wine and drinks.

Food has also been a great way for me to explore different cultures and countries.  Through travel abroad and travel with a multicultural city, I feel blessed to have a pallet that wants to taste the most obscure thing on the menu and always orders it without a second thought.  The odder the better.  It usually opens up a conversation with potential new friends about obscure foods and different places.

I think that there will be a number of different sections to this little food blog to help give it some structure.  I can already see the following emerging:

• "1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die Challenge" - A few years ago, before I got sick, I started a challenge to "eat my way through this book".  I will be re-posting and re-attacking this book and its challenge on this blog.  More details to come!!
• Princess Bistro - I like to cook, A lot.  I hope to share some of my adventures in the kitchen, both successful and not, here.  I love having real people, cooking real food, sharing their experiences.  I hope I can do the same.
• We Like to Eat and Drink - As the title of this blog, I am fortunate to share a love of food and eating with so many friends and family.  I hope to share experiences of how we celebrate events and friendships with food.
• The Cookbook Obsession - I collect cookbooks.  I love them.  I hope to be able to share some reviews of the ones that are on my night table for reading and marking up for future recipies.  
• Culinary Adventures in food - Food has always played a role in my travels and I plan on documenting some of that here.  I feel fortunate to have had so many fabulous experiences abroad, most of them involving food at some point.

That is the beginning.  It will emerge from there I think.  I will stop writing about any food on my other blog and go through my past posts, start to pull some of them over here if they are worthy.  I am most excited to post the "1001 Foods" information.  It is a very cool list and I think that it will be a wonderful starting point for many conversations about food and different and unique foods.  

Here we go.  I am stepping off the edge, into the deep end, and into an over crowded swimming pool where i hope to find a little space to tread water without kicking too many people in the process.